When it Comes to Baseball, It’s All About the Weather

CORVALLIS, Ore. – When the defending national champion Oregon State University baseball team takes to the field on April 5 against the USC Trojans in Goss Stadium, there’s about a 50-50 chance that it won’t rain that day.

And, with a great deal of luck, it might even be shorts and T-shirt weather.

The Oregon Climate Service at OSU is helping Beaver baseball fans plan for the season by maintaining a calendar complete with weather data and even a forecast that will be printed 4-5 days before each game. It was created by Cadee Hale, an associate at the OCS.

“The interest in baseball at OSU has really grown during the past couple of years and it went through the roof last season with the national championship,” said George Taylor, who manages the Oregon Climate Service. “Unfortunately, spring weather in Oregon isn’t always classic baseball weather, so this is a kind of fun, and hopefully helpful, way to share some of our data with fans.”

Taylor has been sharing weather forecasts with OSU baseball coach Pat Casey and his staff for the last few years. He’ll give them warning when storm fronts and opening pitches are on a collision course, or when spring squalls look like they’ll bypass Goss Stadium. Taylor will even sit in the press box and watch the Doppler radar to see if it is about to start or stop raining.

For the record, April 5 in Corvallis boasts an average temperature of 59.4 degrees, with a record high of 82 and a 51 percent probability of precipitation some time during that 24 hours. The probability of rain falling during the game is lower. The Oregon Climate Service will post the actual forecast by Monday of that week.